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replacing 93.5 A/C hoses


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My 1993.5 Esprit is loosing the refrigerant. My mechanic suggests it might be the the lines leaking out since they were designed for R12 instead of the R134 stuff. He sees no other signs of leakage. Has anyone replaced the hoses which run down the the right side of the lower skirt? Is the skirt easy to remove. My mechanic suggests the way the skirt is bonded onto the car; it will be destroyed and need replacing. I want cold air and want to have a proper R134 system. What to do?

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They are not in the skirt but inside the sill inside the door opening. You have to pull the carpet back and drill out the rivets holding the sill in place. Not a fun job but not too difficult either once you gain access. You may screw up the carpet though as it's glued to the sill and can be hard to remove without damaging the carpet fibers.

Personally, I'd leave it R12 if you can. The R134 will never work as well.

Edited by lotus4s

1995 S4s

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The biggest problem you'll have is your a/c condenser and chargecooler condenser are both contained in the same unit. R134a systems need more condenser surface than the comparable R12 system to have the same efficiency and cooling ability. Lotus went to a completely different condenser setup when they changed over to R134a in 1995 and it doesn't work that great and it will be very costly to convert your car to that condenser combo. I think the cost on them is well over a grand.

You would probably be better off and cheaper having a custom condenser setup fabricated or just continue on with your current setup and conversion and hope for the best. It will work, it just won't be as good as it was with R12.

1995 S4s

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello

some time ago i renewed my whole AC system except for the evaporator because the old system had a leakage at the compressor and the condsensor. The whole system was converted to R134a. I replaced the hoses, fitted a new Sanden compressor, a new condensor (old style for R12, this one was bought at one of the factory clearances), a new expansion valve and a drier. The evaporator was retained. The system works OK but is not as good as an R12 system. There is a topic on the forum which i made called AC renewal. The Compressor has a little bit higher capacity than an R12 one because of the switch to 134a (less efficient). The hoses and the drier have to be made for 134a which has a higher permeability (smaller molecules than R12) than R12. Samew story for the expansion valve.

Freek

Esprit Freak

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Do NOT use FREEZE! It will f-up the whole system.

What is wrong with using an old good R12???

If it is leaking-so recharge it by yourself every spring and save yourself a trouble!

You can buy genuine R12 on eBay! Nobody is going to send you to jail.

"Conversions" never work. The whole system has to be designed for R134.

If you had R12-stay with R12.

That is what I would do.

Edited by MrDangerUS

MrDangerUS

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